NGO: Rome police immigration office 'in critical situation'

Rome police immigration office 'in critical situation'

The organizations that are a part of the Rome
Legal Network for Migrants in Transit have warned of a "critical
situation" at the immigration office of the Rome police headquarter. They
believe the possibilities for foreigners to gain access to asylum requests and
permits of stay renewal procedures are too limited.

"The difficulties they meet," they
said, "in gaining access to the offices are hindered by the reduced number
of claims accepted on a daily basis by the immigration office, limited to about
20."

They believe that this"forces asylum
seekers, whether men or women with children, to spend the night in line in
front of the police headquarters in any weather." The organizations also
published video footage they say shows migrants waiting in line at the
immigration office.

In line the entire
night, often in vain

The Rome Legal Network for Migrants in Transit seeks
to support migrants, to offer orientation and legal assistance. They run an unofficial post for migrants at Rome's
Tiburtina station, managed by volunteers from the Baobab Experience
association, which has in the past few months received over 600 people.

The legal network, with the support of the
Baobab Experience volunteers, monitored the immigration office of the Rome
police headquarters in Via Patini for two days.

The video made by the organizations shows
dozens of migrants forced to spend the night in front of the immigration office
for the chance to have their asylum request examined, keeping themselves warm
with a fire on the street.

The network said that for some of them,
standing in the line proved useless, since the police headquarters examines a
maximum of 20 cases per day. The video shows migrants saying that they had
tried to get their requests examined five or six times in vain already. Some of
them spoke out against practices that are considered "illegitimate"
in the case of international protection. One of these is the request for the
signature of an individual or a migrant centre for the certification of a domicile
as well as a passport, "an obligation not foreseen by the law,"
according to the organizations.

Bad practices lead to
irregularities

"An increase in the bad practices
implemented by the Rome police headquarters have in many cases led to migrants'
deciding not to exercise their right to request international protection or the
renewal of their documents, thus remaining in the limbo of irregularity,"
the associations said in a statement. "If the problems remain as they are,
the network's concerns will remain strong as well." In light of what
emerged during the days of observation and monitoring, "the legal network
once again recommends that the authorities intervene so that the procedures
respect the rights guaranteed by national and international law as well as
human dignity."